A New Visions Commentary
paper published January 2004 by The National Center for Public
Policy Research. Reprints permitted provided source is credited.

Michael Jackson.

Go ahead, crack a joke, sigh or shake
your head. Michael's lifestyle and his current predicament inexorably
lead to those reactions. There seem to be only two main schools
of thought concerning the one-time "King of Pop": he's
either guilty of molesting a young boy and ought to be tried,
convicted and put in a cell deep under a prison or he's innocent.

These groups also seem to be split into
two other categories: black and other. A couple of white friends
have asked me why this should be. I chalk it up to history and
love.

Our criminal justice system has historically
been indifferent or downright hostile to the fates of black men.
When I was five years old, I watched two beefy white police officers
beat a black teenager to unconsciousness. One officer had to literally
hold up the profusely bleeding kid while the other officer whacked
him with his baton. Almost 40 years ago, my mother's cousin was
attacked on the main street of their small town by a group of
white men. Her cousin never fully recovered and died a year later.
No one was arrested for the crime. There was never any possibility
of a trial. My mother still cannot talk about her cousin's fate
without becoming upset. Fifty years ago, my husband's grandmother
attended the funeral of a neighbor who was caught by the police
with his white girlfriend in a hotel room. Facing social ruin,
the woman claimed that she'd been kidnapped and raped. The young
man went to the electric chair.

There isn't a black family in America
who doesn't have similar stories, and it's why many of us are
still uneasy around police or defend young men in trouble. I understand
this, but it's the past. As hideous as it was, it doesn't have
much to do with Michael Jackson's predicament today.

There are those, activist Dick Gregory
among them, who believe that Michael Jackson was set up. They
feel "The Man" so hates seeing successful black folks
that, every now and then, one or two must be taken down as a warning
to the rest of us. Michael's wealth and power - so their reasoning
goes - is too much of an affront.

Nonsense. Absolute nonsense.

First, although Michael Jackson is still
wealthy by average guy standards, he's lost a shocking amount
of money over the years. It costs a small fortune each year just
to maintain his 2,700-acre Neverland estate's house, train, zoo
and amusement park rides. Forbes magazine says Jackson is worth
about $350 million. The New York Times points out that his debts
come to $200 million. Compared to billionaires like Robert Johnson
(the founder of BET) and Oprah Winfrey, Michael's financial mess
doesn't look enviable at all.

Second, Michael Jackson's artistic influence
is pretty much nonexistent today. Young people want 50 Cent, Beyonce
and Kid Rock. Unless he somehow pulls together an astonishing
comeback, Michael's years of musical genius are behind him.

So, no, I don't think there's a conspiracy
to take Michael Jackson down. His brother, Jermaine, called Michael's
arrest a "lynching." Someone ought to send Jermaine
a copy of Mamie Till Mobley's book Death of Innocence and One
Hundred Years of Lynching. Michael Jackson is not Emmit Till.
He's not even Rodney King.

I think, deep inside, most of us know
why Michael Jackson is caught in the midst of his current trouble.
It's not white envy - it's his own actions. Michael's repeated
on-camera insistence that there's nothing wrong with having unrelated
kids in his bed and his apparent fascination with boys makes him
look worse than anything a malicious individual could invent.
Given the opportunity to send a son of our own off to Neverland,
I think most of us would instinctively turn down the chance.

In his youth, Michael Jackson brought
an incredible amount of happiness to millions of people. We love
the memory of that little kid with the joy-filled voice and the
huge afro. That's what people are defending, not the 45-year-old
man he is today. America's past and Michael's past are so strongly
imprinted on many people's minds that they refuse to see anything
else.

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(Kimberley Jane Wilson is a
member of the National Advisory Council of the African-American
leadership network Project 21 and a freelance writer in Northern
Virginia. Comments may be sent to [email protected].)

Note: New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author,
and not necessarily those of Project 21.